Separated sisters reunite after 70 years apart
Reunions are a regular occurrence at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, but the one on Wednesday between the elderly woman in the wheelchair and the one holding a bouquet of flowers was decades in the making.
Posted — UpdatedDeva Buttram, the woman holding the bouquet, waited nervously for her sister’s Southwest Airlines flight to arrive from Phoenix.
Deva, 70, was awaiting a sister she barely remembers.
“I have been looking for her because I knew about her,” Buttram said. “I didn’t know if she knew about me.”
It just so happened Nancy Hansen, Deva’s sister, did know about her. And Nancy was searching for her sister as well.
The siblings were separated after their mother, who abandoned the girls at a Montana boarding house, came back for Nancy but left Deva behind.
Deva was a few months old. Nancy was 1.
About 70 years later, Deva wanted to find the sister she knew she had before it was too late.
She reached out to a local newspaper reporter for help. Through his efforts, Deva found Nancy through their brother’s obituary.
They heard each other’s voices for the first time about two months ago, and had daily phone conversations since.
“I walked on clouds for about two weeks,” said Nancy, 71. “I couldn’t believe she was actually found.”
On Wednesday, an airport worker pushed Nancy to Deva, who presented her sister with the bouquet.
The women shared a lengthy, long-awaited embrace.
"Never give up. I had nobody, and now I have a whole family," Deva said.
"She's got a whopper of a family," Nancy said to laughter.
Nancy will be in Raleigh until she heads back to Phoenix on Sunday.
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